The Sussex County Board of Adjustment voted unanimously to again defer their vote on a special-use exemption applications filed by Oakwood Homes.

The company is seeking two special-use exceptions to permit manufactured homes on two separate lots, each measuring less than .75 acres — one located on Hoot Owl Lane near Dagsboro and the other on Julie Court near Frankford.

Foodies rejoice! There’s a new event in Bethany Beach shining the spotlight on area restaurants. Even better — the Bethany Beach Ocean Suites Food & Wine Festival will benefit the Food Bank of Delaware.

Set for 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18, the festival will be held at Bethany Beach Ocean Suites Residence Inn by Marriott.

Former Millville Volunteer Fire Company (MVFC) Treasurer Justin Oakley was recently sentenced to six months in jail for stealing nearly $200,000 from the company. Oakley was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $5,181.88, which he reportedly did immediately following sentencing on Friday, Nov. 3.

Coastal Point • Laura Walter: About 27 entrants smile before the competition begins, alongside Southern Sussex Rotarians and other special guests.“Confidence” might be the word of the night, as 27 Indian River School District third-graders competed in the third annual Spelling Bee.

Southern Sussex Rotary hosted the event for southern district students on Nov. 1 at John M. Clayton Elementary.

Seated on stage, some students swung their feet, not quite reaching the floor, as they watched their peers. Pausing from her duties as moderator, or “pronouncer,” Becky Burton told the audience how the students were encouraging each other.

George Washington is honored as the father of the United States of America, and Abraham Lincoln is eulogized for having preserved the Union of states that became a true nation. Although not depicted on Mount Rushmore, nor considered a member of the American pantheon, Ulysses S. Grant provided the military leadership required to win the Civil War and bring the rebellious states back in the fold.

Lighthouse Christian Students to thank veterans

For years, Lighthouse Christian School has felt the importance of educating youth on the meaning of Veterans Day.

“Our school is very, very concerned about giving time to the veterans, and recognizing our veterans for the sacrifices that both them and their families have made,” said Pat Viguie, a teacher at the school.

As I backed out the driveway last Friday morning at 7:15, Cedar Drive was still quiet before the mad rush of buses and parents dropping off the kids at Lord Baltimore Elementary School. Even though I live a half a mile from work, it’s funny how I need to do just the right timing so I do not end up mixed in part of the busy drop-off time of the school traffic.

As I went down School Lane, I notice that there was a soft layer of fog over the fields drifting up toward a brilliant blue sky. Going to be another great day of this Indian summer we are seeing this year, I thought to myself.

Pulling into the office parking lot convinced me that there needed to be a change of plans for the morning. I can read e-mails anytime, I figured. This fog is here now and will be gone in another half hour. Grabbing my camera, I headed for Fresh Pond, making a few scenic stops along the way.

Fresh Pond is a part of my old stomping ground, as I lived on Cedar Neck Road until I was in 11th grade. It was much different then, comprised mostly of fields (some farmed and some just natural). After school, weekends and in the summer, we rode bikes or walked just about anywhere. We ran through cornfields, built forts in the woods and even swam in the Assawoman Canal.

Opinions vary, locally and nationally, on medicinal marijuana

Special to the Coastal Point • Christina Weaver: Tina and Charles Abrachinsky in their home. Charles recently started using a tincture to help control pain.“At 10:15 a.m., I took my first ‘cocktail,’ as I call it. It was a couple of drops of ‘jet fuel’ marijuana tincture mixed with orange juice in a shot glass. I didn’t know what to expect,” said 81-year-old Charles Abrachinsky, who lives in Ocean View.

It was Wednesday, Sept. 13, and Abrachinsky recorded the time and amount in his notebook.

“Twenty minutes later I turned to Tina, my wife, and said ‘Wow!’ I didn’t feel any pain. It was unbelievable.”

Abrachinsky has lived with his pain all his adult life. His injuries started when he played football at the University of Pittsburgh and included a broken pelvis and torn meniscus. Back then though he was more disappointed by not being able to play in the Sugar Bowl than he was worried about future pain.

Thanks to an official waiving of the Millsboro Police Department’s grooming standards by the Millsboro Town Council, male police officers will be permitted to grow facial hair between now and Dec. 13. There’s a catch, though.

“In order for officers to do this, they have to pay money,” Police Chief Brian Calloway said.

Specifically, the officers will pay $120 total for the right to grow beards and mustaches through December — $20 for October, $40 for November and $60 for December.

Calloway said most of the men in his 15-member department are participating in the big beard project. The female members of the department may not be able to grow beards, but they contribute in other ways, he said.

Special to the Coastal Point photos• Bruce Walls: Indian River field hockey players fight for ball control vs. Lake Forest, before ultimately falling 0-1 on Tuesday, Nov. 7.In a steady rain, 12th-seeded Indian River High School’s girl’s field hockey team faced 5th-seeded Lake Forest on the Spartans astro-turfed football field on Tuesday, Nov. 7, for round one of the DIAA State Tournament.

Under harsh conditions both defenses battled fiercely to keep their opponents from scoring. Then, with just over five minutes remaining in the second half, the Spartan offense scored the game’s only goal, breaking the longstanding tie.

“The girls played well,” said IR Head Coach Jodi Stone. “This is the second time we’ve made the tournament — two consecutive years — so as a young team we have to be proud of our journey. We were at least able to get to the tournament. There’s nothing to be ashamed of and we’re going to keep our heads high.”

Laurel Star • Mike McClure: Indian River’s Oscar Cruz-Osorio looks to hold back Laurel’s Santos Rodas as he dribbles the ball. Cruz-Osorio had a pair of assists in his team’s 4-2 road loss.The stars aligned for the Laurel varsity soccer team last Wednesday night. The Bulldogs’ home matchup against Indian River had been pushed back due to weather, setting up a final divisional showdown with the Indians for all the marbles and the Laurel team didn’t disappoint its fans.

The Bulldogs scored a pair of unanswered goals in the second half to win the game and the Henlopen South with the 4-2 victory.

“I didn’t sleep last night, that’s how nervous I was,” Laurel’s sophomore goalie Jailon Gillespie said. “It feels so good to beat a team you’ve never beaten and to be on top.”

Indian River took advantage of Laurel’s nervousness at the start of the game as Erick Aguilera-Baruch scored on a feed from Oscar Cruz-Osorio for a 1-0 Indian lead with 38:21 left in the first half.

Special to the Coastal Point • Susan Walls: The girls’ cross-county team poses with their Southern Division Conference title trophy.Indian River High School’s varsity Girls Cross Country team made school history last Saturday, Nov. 4, at Killens Pond State Park where the Henlopen Conference Championships were being held. The girls brought home their first regular season Southern Division Conference title. They earned seven wins, beating Delmar, Dover, Polytech, Sussex Academy, Milford, Cape Henlopen and Sussex Central.

According to Coach Katie Ryman, who co-coaches the teams with her husband, Frank, it took, “Five years of hard training with different teams that we’ve had. We’ve built upon our successes every single year. This year we did our best to keep our runners as healthy as we could.”

The girls were 6th place overall, and individually Micayla Meehan was 8th overall with a time of 21:05 for 2nd team All-Conference, and Lauren Meehan finished 20th overall, with a time of 21:50 for 3rd team All-Conference.

“We had significantly fewer injuries and that was because we focused on speed in the beginning of the season. We always consider the fitness level of our runners, and any aches and pains from the previous days workouts were considered before deciding on a workout for each day,” Katie explained.

The boy’s cross-country runners finished 9th overall, with 2 medal winners. Junior Patrick Spencer was 12th overall with a time of 17:28, and junior Tony Velasquez, who was 10th in County, completing the distance in 18:02

Special to the Coastal Point • Bruce Walls: Indian River is considering making the switch to Bermuda grass like this at Seaford High School.After tossing the idea around for years, the Indian River School District’s Board of Education unanimously voted this week to begin pursuing Bermuda grass for the football and field hockey stadiums at both high schools.

“I think the public is going to appreciate what we’re doing with these four fields,” said Joe Booth, supervisor of Buildings & Grounds. “I work for the district, but I also am a district resident. … I think this is a good thing moving forward, trying to improve these fields for our students.”

The optimum option would be artificial turf, he said, but Bermuda grass is a great runner-up.

“It’s mainly because of the recovery, and it gives you a little bit of the cushion. It’s mowed short so you don’t have a problem with cleats getting caught,” he said. Also, “It’s flat. It’s consistent all the way through.”

Bonkeys in Ocean View is my favorite sweet spot. Too many trips to Bonkeys can definitely have a negative influence on finding the other sweet spot, the one on your pickleball paddle. It matters not how large your paddle sweet spot is if you can’t move into position to hit returns of serve and volleys.

Coming to the Delaware beaches for Thanksgiving and looking for a twist on your family tradition?

Join up for the Fourth Annual Gabby Gobble 5K on Thanksgiving morning, Thursday, Nov. 23, at Irish Eyes Pub in Lewes. The race will begin at 9:30 a.m. Proceeds from the race will go to the Get Well Gabby Foundation.

The 10th Annual Fenwick Island Turkey Trot will be held on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 23, at 8 a.m. The untimed 2.2-mile fun-run/walk starts oceanside on Lewes Street in Fenwick Island, and goes south to the Maryland state line and back.

On Saturday, Dec. 2, the Town of Bethany Beach will host its annual Holiday Happenings from 1 to 3 p.m. at town hall. The event will feature face-painting and photos with Santa, complete with hot cocoa, cookies and a station for children to write letters to Santa.

Following a long public comment session last week, residents returned to the Sussex County Council chambers on Oct. 31 to voice their opinions regarding right-to-work legislation proposed by County Councilman Rob Arlett.

The packed room, leaving many attendees standing, was also filled with workers sporting their union shirts.

If a coastal storm were to hit Fenwick Island, the town council wants to have to have some financial power ready to go.

The Fenwick Island Town Council recently proposed changing the town charter to increase their borrowing limits. Currently, Charter Section 34 permits the Town to borrow up to $500,000 in one year for current expenses — an amount that hasn’t changed since 1965.

To continue their public outreach and education, the Ocean View Historical Society will host a lecture by local author and storyteller Ed Okonowicz on “The Food Lore of Delmarva — Muskrat, Scrapple & More.”

“This talk was made possible by a grant from the Delaware Humanities, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities,” said OVHS President Barbara Slavin.

Special to the Coastal Point • Submitted: The numbers are daunting in Delaware’s heroin epidemic.“This is like watching a hurricane grow,” said Robert Stuart regarding the heroin epidemic in the state to those attending the Sussex County Today & Tomorrow Conference on Oct. 25.

Stuart, director of Sussex County Emergency Medical Services, was joined at the conference by Lt. Tim Hulings and intelligence analyst Nicole Sapp, both of the Delaware State Police.

Stuart noted that, in looking at heroin-related statistics, the Millsboro area was in the top five for use of the overdose-reversing drug Narcan (naloxone).

“It’s not an underprivileged community — it’s one of the fastest-growing towns in the state of Delaware,” he said. “It’s the entire state of Delaware… It’s everywhere.”